Thanks, this morning is starting out very good!That is GREAT NEWS!!
I tried a couple times yesterday to sit down and crank out more updates, but it just didn't happen. We hit the dentist twice last week for Rachel's braces, It wasn't supposed to be that difficult for her..I dread Lisa's turn.
Tomorrow Anakin goes for more dental work then has play practice every night this week, leading up to the big performance on Friday.

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Great start! I think that taking a relaxed approach is the way to go, especially if it is easier on your son. Much more fun that way. Looks like you got a nice room at Pop, it seems so private and quiet with that view! Looking forward to reading more

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Welcome! Thank you. Keeping things calm and relaxing seem to work the best with him. But if I do tell him something we have planned, then I sure as heck have to follow through with it.

I really liked this location. It was very quiet. We brought along our "noise maker" for him and didn't even have to use it at night. We didn't hear toilets flush or people walking by the room. Once I heard someone running up the bowling pin stairs. That scared him half to death until I assured him it was just someone taking the stairs.

I'm here!!! Love seeing the Christmas decorations - so pretty around the World Showcase. Coral Reef looks great. Got it on my list for reservations when we go in late Feb. The R2D2 hat is fantastic. You picked up crocheting quickly. I never could get the hang of crocheting - knitting I can do. Pop 50's rooms are really cool - after your reviews, I'm thinking of doing them in Dec. Can't wait to hear more and see all the great pics of the decorations. Hope everything is going well with the dental work today. Does Anakin have Duffy with him?

I'm here!!! Love seeing the Christmas decorations - so pretty around the World Showcase. Coral Reef looks great. Got it on my list for reservations when we go in late Feb. The R2D2 hat is fantastic. You picked up crocheting quickly. I never could get the hang of crocheting - knitting I can do. Pop 50's rooms are really cool - after your reviews, I'm thinking of doing them in Dec. Can't wait to hear more and see all the great pics of the decorations. Hope everything is going well with the dental work today. Does Anakin have Duffy with him?

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Thanks Lisa and Alyson for asking. The dental work went well. He did not bring a Duffy. The appointment was so early in the morning that I woke him up and practically went from bed to car. He was their first appointment. He was a real trooper. Came home and he slept until 1pm. He is still numb.

Alyson, I hope you enjoy Pop and the Coral Reef as much as we do.

Everyone, I am sorry it's taking me so long to update. I hope to get another update up tonight or tomorrow. This week is exceptionally busy. Mostly the busy-ness is in a fun way. Play practice daily and I'm organizing the after party.

Time was ticking. It was nearly 6pm and dh still wasn't back to the resort. School work was done and we were getting hungry. I debated taking ds to the food court, but it's just too hard to take him alone. Besides, he wanted Taco Bell. That could work. We could head over to Cross Roads, eat at Taco Bell and head over to Epcot for the fireworks. They have additional fireworks at the end for the holidays.

I called dh and he was almost at the resort. He wasn't too happy about Taco Bell, but was very happy about going to see Illuminations.

I picked up a Holiday Guide at Guest Services because I didn't notice any at the gate. I asked if they had a Times Guide for the next day since it would be a new week. I was told no that I'd have to look online after midnight.

Anakin was having some sensory issues. He didn't like the sensation of the cold air touching his eyes. He kept them closed. Pulled his Darth Vader Mickey hat over his eyes. Pulled up his cover to his chin, and we made a bee-line to the Gingerbread House at the American Pavillon.

Nancy, a cm, was walking around selling goodies.

She was able to convince Anakin to move his hat from his eyes.

Egg nog and a gingerbread cookie became our dessert.

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It was soon time for the candlelight processional to start. I would have liked to have seen it, but when we saw Santa Claus was out for his M&G we opted to meet Santa. As we got back into line, Anakin pulled his hat over his eyes again and his blanket up to his neck. (Our vacation next year is up north in the fall. This could prove interesting.)

As we were getting in line, a cm asked us if he would prefer to use a ramp instead of the stairs. She showed us where the line for the ramp was, but we chose to stay in the regular line.

Kai, a cm who was the attendant with Santa and Mrs. Claus, made a comment about the Vader hat. Instantly, the hat was lifted up and Star Wars talk ensued. The two of them talked about characters and actors and Star Wars Weekends. Kai made the wait to see Santa very magical. Anakin just loved him. I think he would have been fine skipping Santa and just talking to Kai. Usually people don't know all the Star Wars babble that Anakin speaks, but Kai kept up with him, challenging Anakin to think further. Later, back at our room, I asked him what the best part of today was, and he said talking about Star Wars with Kai.

There was no more hat pulled over his eyes the rest of the night either.

It was our turn for Santa, and Anakin needed a little time to transition from Kai to Santa. He walked up to Santa and sat right down. We couldn't hear what they were talking about, but Santa gave us the heads up that he would like a race car for Christmas.

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While we were leaving, Anakin spotted a guest wearing a Gator hat, and he hollered out to him, "Go Gators!! I love your hat!" The guest loved his enthusiasm and asked him if he'd like to try on the hat.

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We decided to go find a spot for Illuminations. Anakin began to panic. He was worried he'd have a seizure. We assured him that his neurologist said it was ok now to watch fireworks. He was scared and wanted to go home. We told him that we are watching the fireworks tonight. We thought if we headed over by the Odyssey restrooms then he could see if there were any snails on the walls.

There were no snails, and he insisten on leaning over the rails to look for them. I think it was too cold. So we found a bench between First Aid and those restrooms, and sat there for Illuminations.

happy boy with a big cookie!
always love the interaction Anakin receives from the CM's!
love the photos with Santa and the Mrs!
great spot from Illuminations and no crowd either were you able to see the entire show?

Day 2 was Sunday. We had one plan for this day. 3pm be at AoA for a birthday party for a child of another DIS family.

Woke up an talked to some friends of ours who had asked if we wanted to eat lunch with them. They suggested Earl of Sandwich. On our way there, I got a text that they couldn't find parking and were driving around the lots. We all decided that Red Lobster sounded like a good alternative. We were off to Cross Roads.

Red Lobster was empty. We were quickly served. Instead of shopping at DTD we ended up elsewhere and I ended up with this beauty for my niece.

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Anakin bought himself a McQueen race car that workes by following a light. It didn't come with batteries so we stopped at a Walgreens for batteries. Before we knew it, it was time for the birthday party.

We were instructed to be there at 3, but not to come right in because it was a surprise party. I went to the restroom. Anakin and Goofy stood against the wall. The birthday boy walked by and Anakin pointed him out as "Dad, there's that boy." His dad got him out of there in a hurry. With him outside, we figured it was safe to go into the food court.

I don't want to take away from Onetreehill's TR, so I am going to post just one teaser picture of Anakin and her son.

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They became quick friends and had a great time together. There was one other family at the party too. It turned out that the dad of that family acts at the same theater where Anakin takes his classes! It's a small world, huh?

Everyone from the party was off to Disney Quest next. Anakin was overstimulated and needed more time to decompress at our room. We did the Wilbarger brushing protocol and he played with his new toy for a little. Once he was calmed enough, we headed to Disney Quest.

He was so excited to go there. Since he was photosensitive for a couple years, we hadn't gone. Before he was born, we use to eat there every other Thursday night. We use to love those Cheesecake Factory Express Quest Burgers. Sadly the Cheesecake Factory left there years ago. Now they are just regular Disney burgers.

Anakin and his new friend had lots of fun.

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We parted ways when they went out to eat and we went back to the resort. On the way back to the resort, we decided we were hungry for rotisserie chicken from Publix. We decided to try it at the new Publix in Celebration. All I can say is this is now my favorite Publix! The store is huge and it's a new prototype they are trying. There was a salad bar and many other things not found at our Publix. We got our chicken and headed back to the room to eat it.

This was a very different, relaxing day. We didn't go to any parks and we didn't eat at any of Disney's restaurants.

Kuddos yet again to the CM's. That is awesome how they got Anakin to come out from him hat. Love all the Star Wars talk and that it was Anakin's fav part of the day. Santa is PERFECT!! Did Anakin do ok with the fireworks? Great pics, by the way. Cool birthday party!

happy boy with a big cookie!
always love the interaction Anakin receives from the CM's!
love the photos with Santa and the Mrs!
great spot from Illuminations and no crowd either were you able to see the entire show?

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The gingerbread cookies were nice and soft. I asked if they were hard because gingerbread typically is. The cm said it was soft and she was right, they were very good and soft.

If those people standing at the railing had moved down any further, we wouldn't have been able to see the globe. Dh could not see it as they blocked his view. But Anakin and I had a good view. We could only see a couple of the countries and could not see any of the water fountains. We had a pretty decent view of the fireworks. Some of it was blocked by the first aid building and some by trees, but for the most part we were very pleased with the view.

what a fun party! happy the boys had fun together!
cute bag for your neice!

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The boys would have liked to get together more. We did meet up with them one more time, then play practice and school got in our way of getting to a park. A week ago today, was our last visit to a park.

Kuddos yet again to the CM's. That is awesome how they got Anakin to come out from him hat. Love all the Star Wars talk and that it was Anakin's fav part of the day. Santa is PERFECT!! Did Anakin do ok with the fireworks? Great pics, by the way. Cool birthday party!

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Awesome cm!

He did great with the fireworks until the grand finale. He and I both had a very odd sensation in our chest from the booms. I couldn't breath and neither could he. Not sure why. DH didn't experience any thing like we did. If we stay again, we will make sure we are walking away when that part comes.

All the pictures of the fireworks, Epcot and Disney Quest were taken on my Galaxy S II phone. The party picture was taken on my Nikkon.

love soft gingerbread cookies! guess that is a good place to stand if you don't want to be with the crowds!

you must be having withdrawls if its been over a week!

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I haven't had time for withdrawals. Been busy with homeschooling, appointments, and Anakin's acting classes.

Thankfully he is far ahead in his schooling. We started in June. The review from the previous year is over and now he is learning new things. So it's slower going as he needs time to process the new material. Reading is still a struggle unless I give him a pencil and tell him to mark all the special sounds and vowels. Then he can read through the word with no problems. He just can't keep track of it all in his head. He is superb at spelling. I can say anyword, and as long as it follows the phonics rules he's learned, he can spell it accurately. My MIL was so impressed with how he could spell any word she said.

Our appointments are over for the week! Yay!

Last night, they ran through the play 3 times. Anakin was so excited to do the run throughs and so exhausted afterwards. He fell asleep on the way home from play practice.

None of our family is able to come, but there are a couple cm who are coming and one who might come. Hurray for Disney family. The woman in charge of his special needs church is coming and some of the helpers may come as well. A few of dh's customers from work are coming too.

I tried not to watch the play. With all this practice and waiting at appointments, I have finished seven R2-D2 hats. When I posted the picture on my facebook, some friends asked if I could make them for Christmas for them. I didn't think I could whip them up so fast, but the last one took me two play practices and the dentist appointment, about 7 hours.

I did watch one of the run throughs last night. I am going to have to bring kleenex. I have never seen such determination and drive. I call them kids, but many of the actors with unique abilities are my age, some even older. They all knew their lines, said them with pride and determination. Their buddies did a great job of getting them to their marks and promting them when it was their turn. And they do it in such a way that the audience doesn't even notice their leading and prompting. It's so well blended together!

Also this week has been filled with fundraising for the troupe. This group runs solely on donations and volunteers. The community is instrumental on keeping this group going. Over the last 6 months the troupe has grown from 17 actors with unique abilities to 26, and 17 volunteers! It's so touching seeing many who hadn't found a purpose in their lives, find it on the stage. They are an amazing group of individuals.

This was another unusual day. Monday, Anakin had a two hour showcase practice for his homeschool theater group. We knew we had to be there in the early afternoon, other than that we had no plans.

We found out that JJ's new friend would be spending the day at the MK, so we figured that's where we'd end up at some point in the day.

Anakin did not wake up until late morning. Got him bathed and dressed and headed back home. We were going to stop to eat along the way, but we had all that turkey from Thanksgiving going to waste in the refrigerator at home. So we ended up back home having leftovers.

At the theater, he got his script. The other kids got their's Thanksgiving week, but after being told there was no practice an email went out that there was, but I didn't get the email until after the fact. Thankfully his lines were easy to remember. They had made his character as the comic relief. He was very funny, but didn't understand that they were not laughing at him. He felt very insulted. I was in another room, so I had no idea what was going through his head until after. When I told him he was making people happy and that's why they were laughing.

He had developed the character before the script was made. All the kids developed their own character, the plot, conflict and conclusion. The instructor took all those individual assignments and helped them put it together to write a script.

When showcase practice was over, we headed back to the resort. Mousekeeping had done a fabulous job with the room, giving us extra towels for the pool and extra face cloths. even some kind of towel animal.

It was soon dinner time. Earl of Sandwich sounded good to all of us since we didn't get there yesterday. The Christmas tree outside the restaurant was different this year. In the past it had always been themed for Once Upon a Toy. This year it was pretty in blue.

Speaking of trees, I didn't take any pictures of Pop Century's tree, but I did take a picture of Art of Animation's tree the day before.

We had our usual at EoS, tuna melts for dh and I, and pizza sandwich for Anakin. I didn't take any pictures of our food.

After EoS we went back to the resort. Anakin wanted to play with the McQueen car he got the day before. The one that works with a flashlight. He played with it for a few seconds and it stopped working. It didn't take us long to discover that this toy sucks up the battery fast. 15 minutes is all the play time that he gets out of all the batteries the toy takes. Maybe that's why the toy was on the reduced price rack? It was a $50 toy marked down to $25.

Since his friend was at the MK, he wanted to go there. Dh and I wanted to see Wishes, so that worked out well to go there. We took our car over to the TTC and were so happy when we got parked up near the front. We got him in his chair and headed off to the monorail. This evening was an EMH MK night. So we had plenty of time even though the park closed early. We knew the ferry was our only choice back to the TTC. There was nobody in front of us as we entered the monorail line. As luck would have it, they closed down the Express Monorail to take a train off the track and we were sent over to the resort monorail. We have discovered that the amount of time it takes to take a train off the track is the same amount of time it takes to get to the MK on the resort monorail.

The cm here was very testy. When I filled out the resort survey sent via email, I did write about our experience here. She was downright rude to us. We asked nicely for a ramp. She looked at us like we were from another planet and asked if we really need a ramp. Dh and I both felt offended. He kept his mouth shut because if he had opened it, he would have offered his two cents but he didn't want to upset Anakin. I said nicely that yes, we did need a ramp, the w/c is pretty heavy and his weight adds even more to it. Dh was ticked at me that I justified our need for the ramp. The cm checked both areas where the ramp should be and it wasn't there. Again she asked if we really needed it. We didn't say a word and just stood there. She huffed off to the express monorail side and got a ramp. All the while, people were piling in "our" car leaving very little room to get him inside or us. She also did not push whatever light needs to be pushed to say that we need a ramp upon exiting.

Our first stop was the Poly. A couple people got out of our car here, but were quickly replaced with more people. Next was the Grand Floridian. Two more people crammed into our car. The final stop was the MK. The Epress Monorail was already unloading people before our doors on the Resort Monorail ever opened. Everyone piled out and I had to flag someone to bring a ramp. I just stood outside of the car waiting. Even though there were plenty of cm, only one person was getting ramps for each car. We were the last car he got to.

We checked our phones. The time it took to go from our parked car to arrive at the MK was an hour and a half! The people in front of us at bag check were late for their ADR at BoG. They didn't even know where to go, so I helped them by explaining where the check-in for the restaurant was and the quickest way to get there. They were very thankful and helping them got my mind off of how frazzled I was with the monorail experience.

What are our chances? As we got through bag check, there was Onetreehill's dh right smack in front of us! He was heading out of the park to get the tripod. He gave us the heads up that his family was at Pirates. As soon as we got near the attraction, Anakin began calling for his friend. I texted that we were at Pirates looking for them. Got a text back that they were getting popcorn. We found them over by the magic carpets, and rode with them. Then rode jungle cruise. My pictures got terrible.

We parted ways as they headed off to Casey's Corner for dinner and we headed to Fantasyland to watch fireworks at "my spot". My spot is over by the Pinocchio Haus and where Dumbo use to be. In the past, very few people ever watched here. This night was particularly busy here.

I love how fireworks explode all around at this location. I wasn't sure how Anakin was going to take it. He donned his earphones and sunglasses. But there were squeals of excitement and awe as he watched. With the New Fantasyland, I loved how my the Beast's castle showed up in the pictures! Again, these were taken with my phone. This time I had my Nikon, but the battery was low.

I must say reading your comments about the show and all the kids and helpers touched my heart! so happy Anakin is a part of this great group can't wait to hear all about it! wish him luck from us!

wow what a rude CM...you have much more restraint then I would of had! so uncalled for, happy you wrote her up!

fireworks photos look great!
such pretty trees at DTD & AoA!

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Glad they touched your heart. In the beginning, I shadowed Anakin to make sure he understood what he was doing. By a month into it, he was fine on his own and knew to wait for me before he left. Twice I found him outside because he followed adults out of the theater thinking they were going to the next activity and not realizing it was over. Hate that feeling in my stomach when I realized he left the building without me. My biggest worry is after the show, will he know to find us. I am in charge of refreshments so he'll need to either come to me there or I have to hope that dh and ds get to him first. I really hope a volunteer stays with him until he is with one of us.

Hopefully Sunday after church we will get back to see more decorations at Disney.

Love the AOA tree - I'm usually not a fan of white trees but the color of the ornaments make the tree! You did very well containing yourself with the CM on the monorail. That had to be extremely frustrating.

Almost play time! Anakin ready for his big night? The theater company sounds amazing. It is truely touching what they do so that the actors can participate and have their talents shine.